The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for the loading and unloading of an array of parts. The method and apparatus of the present invention is particularly adapted for the handling of nuclear fuel rods in a fuel element fabrication facility.
In various manufacturing operations as well as in other applications, it is often desirable to provide automated means for rapidly processing large numbers of parts. Such an operation is particularly contemplated by the present invention in relation to the fabrication of nuclear fuel rods. Many thousands of such rods must be produced and suitably stored in order to permit economic operation of nuclear reactors wherein the fuel elements or rods are employed.
Because of the nature of the radioactive fuel elements, it is further necessary to provide a substantially automated operation with the fuel rods being stored in batches in separate storage containers designed so that the metal densities of the container arrays are maintained within satisfactory limits. Accordingly, a very large number of storage containers are required within a fuel element fabrication facility for this purpose. Such a facility may be considered as having a number of major subsystems or processings steps including: (1) particle blending, (2) fuel rod formation, (3) fuel rod storage, (4) fuel rod loading, (5) fuel rod carbonization and heat treatment, and (6) final fuel element assembly. The formed fuel rods must be transferred a number of times before they are finally assembled into a complete nuclear fuel element. Accordingly, within such a facility, a number of intermediate storage areas are employed as well as a main storage area for the finished nuclear fuel rods prior to their assembly into fuel elements. In the past, it has been common to employ tubular storage units capable of storing the fuel rods in approximately the same arrangement within which the fuel rods are finally assembled into a fuel element. However, such containers are relatively expensive because of their complex shapes. In addition, loading and unloading of the tubular containers has been relatively slow because of the need for aligning the tubes with devices or mechanisms employed to load and unload the fuel rods.